How to get a group together

Naetha

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,564
This may seem like a simple thing to do, but a lot of people have been having trouble recently getting artifact/levelling/RvR groups together recently, so I thought I'd just put up a quick guide about how to form a good group.

1) Have an objective. What do you want to do? RvR? PvE? You need to be specific - say you want to get a group together to get artifact X in XX zone.

2) Have a timescale. Do you know how long this is going to take, or how long you're going to be doing this for? People don't like to commit for unspecified amounts of time, so you're more likely to get people if you say it will take about half an hour, or you want to get an RvR group going for a couple of hours. Don't underestimate how long it takes either - if you tell everyone it will take 10 minutes and it actually takes half an hour you'll annoy people.

3) Set a time and place to do something specific - it gives people online notice that you want to do something, and also informs people that have just logged on what is going on. Either make regular announcements on /gu, or ask an officer to add it to the MOTD (message of the day). Have a meeting place that is easy to get to, and relatively safe, e.g. a ToA haven, or Castle Sauvage.

3) Have an idea of what classes you need/will need. If its something that requires a good full group, then make sure you have the essential classes available, such as clerics/pallies etc. Many artefact encounters and ML steps need a different approach that a standard group doesn't provide, e.g. a mob that you have to kill fast will die faster if you have a theurgist there to petspam it to reduce the af, so take this into account when forming a group. If after your initial request for help you get no reply from anyone of these classes, do /gc who and find out who's on. People may be playing alts, or may be afk, or may have lots of chat spam so they may have missed your request - don't be afraid to pm people, and remember which people have alts that are clerics/sorcs/pallies etc

OK, so you've got your group together - you've met at the specified time and place, everyone's in the group, you're all buffed up and ready to go - what happens now?

Because you've got this group together, people will assume you're the leader, and you know what you're doing. Make sure you've read up on what you need to do - lots of good artifact/quest/ML walkthroughs on www.visionofsages.net/toa. Also make sure you have on you what you need - if you're taking a keep, make sure you have rams, also some artifact encounters require rams (Egg of Youth and Spear of Kings), many ML encounters require items from previous encounters etc, so bear this in mind and make sure you have thsese items on you. Also if you're going off into ToA you may need a boat, so again, make sure you have one, or ask someone who is coming to bring one with them - not everyone has skiffs, but most groups will have one within them.

So you've got there in one piece, you're all ready. You need to brief the group - tell them what to do. Lots of ToA mobs have enhanced AI and can do some pretty unexpected things - they won't be unexpected to you as you will have read the walkthrough, but the cleric might not know that the mob has a powerful ae mezz, or the sorc might not know about the gazillions of adds you'll get - tell them beforehand so they can be as prepared as you are.

Off you go, do your killing :twak:

What if it goes wrong:
Have a backup plan - have a place to meet if you all get wiped out, and keep people interested - you need to stop them from wanting to log an alt, which is pretty much a natural reaction when it all goes pearshaped. Work out what went wrong, and criticize if you need to, but make sure its constructive. There's no point in going back if you're going to make the same mistakes again, so make sure you've learned from your previous experience, for example - the cleric ran out of power and couldn't heal? Make sure the cleric has power pots on the next run.

Hopefully this should make getting groups together to go RvRing and to get artifacts much much easier

A couple of other points to remember:

Make sure whatever you're about to do is available - make sure the artifact encounter is up, that there are mids in HW, and if you're not sure then tell people that you're not sure, but if there aren't any you'll go to Odin's instead for example.

Make sure you're bound in a suitable location, such as the nearest haven, or somewhere where you can easily port to where you're going. If being rezz sick is a problem for you (e.g. a cleric as you'll have reduced conc while rezz sick) then make sure you bind near a healer. All of the ToA havens are generally a good place to bind if you are in ToA or the frontier zones. If you're in classic, Gothwaite harbour is a great place to bind. If you have a slow computer and you're RvRing, bind in Sauvage - there isn't a healer there, but you can bind right on the pad.

If you're having problems getting people together to do something that is difficult or monotonous, give them an incentive. Most artefact mobs/ML encounters have pretty nice static drops, or at least good RoG drops - remind them of this, or maybe offer to do an artifact they need afterwards, although remember not to get yourself into doing a chain of 8 artefacts if you don't have that much time.

People will remember what you've done in the past and take it into account - if you log immediately after getting your artifact, even though you said you'd help someone else get yours, that's probably the last artifact you'll get help with. If you log an alt after the first wipeout in RvR, you're unlikely to get invited into more RvR groups - to succeed, we need to co-operate.

Damn this is a long post, but any questions post below or give me a yell in game or over pm :)
 

Alithiel

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
648
Nice post... just a couple of minor corrections... ;)

Naetha said:
a mob that you have to kill fast will die faster if you have a theurgist there to petspam it to reduce the af
Petspam does not reduce the mobs af. Its simply a case of increasing the number of attackers, which reduces the chance that attacks against the mob will miss or be resisted, blocked, parried or evaded.

Naetha said:
also some artifact encounters require rams (Egg of Youth and Spear of Kings),
These encounters do not require rams. A ram is perhaps helpful and may make it easier, but if you have end regen and enough tanks with fault-finder then you can manage without.
 

ilaya

Can't get enough of FH
Joined
Jan 26, 2004
Messages
1,660
erm that thing about pets NOT lowering target level or AF.. are u SURE? like 100% sure? if u are.. why is there an animist nerf? think on it..

i doubt animists are the most overpowered SI class in game right now but its them getting all the nerfs.. but lets not get into that right now :D
 

Spear

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Jan 7, 2004
Messages
77
Theurgists only get pets that Melee(Earth) Nuke(Ice) Stun(Air) if you have lots on a mob then your chance to hit is greatly increased the pets don't actually do much else.

Thought the main reason animists got nerfed was because 2 fg took a relic by settings up around 100 turrets to take out the doors and nobody could stop them since the turrets wiped out anything that came near.
 

Anniogel

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 10, 2004
Messages
4
Hey all, nice boards you have here..

I'm a casual player (not very good, so I guess a noob) and have just reactivated my account again after almost a year away. I usually solo and dont know to much about grouping (I've only done it like 4-5 times as every group I join seems to think we can rule the world and we effectivly get destroyed by red-purple mobs in quick and embaressing fassion.)

so I found this article great :worthy:

Here's my question though..my friend has been watching me play and has taken an interest himself in playing..I am a level 21 Pally in Albion and if he started out a new character could we actually even group/fight together? I imagine thats a no, as people would just be grouping their new characters with powerful characters to level up without much effort in a week- end.

At what levels would he be compatible with a level 21?

Well I thought I'd ask, and see if there are any options (besides me starting all over again :) ...ok I'll do it if I have to!) please let me know and take care.

Peace
 

Naetha

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,564
Well he could group with you from level 1, but it would probably only be a 2 man group ;) To get a group with other level 20s, he'd have to be at least level 17 or 18 I'd say, unless the group members are feeling particularly generous.

It might be an idea to level up another character with him, depending on what character he plays. As you already have a paladin (these have end-regen - not sure if this came in before you stopped playing) then the good combination of damage dealing tank (e.g. mercenary or armsman) and paladin wouldn't really be appropriate. Casters generally go quite well together and are often fun to play at the lower levels. A cleric and a necro is regarded as the fastest form of levelling these days, but needless to say its not much fun. If one of you starts a minstrel, then you will whizz through levels 1-20 as you can do kill tasks easily with speed. Levelling up to 20 really isn't as tough as it was previously - the mobs haven't got any harder while there is now spellcrafting, better drops, buffbots etc etc - you should be able to do it in a week of playing a couple of hours a day, if that.
 

Anniogel

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 10, 2004
Messages
4
oh ok thanks for the advice..I think I may start a new char with him then.

Also if I listed my current specs (in a new thread) of my pally, current abilities, and powers ect. would anyone here be able to guide me just a bit to make sure I'm using my skill points in the correct way and that I'm not going to have a sucky character if I ever get him to the real high levels?

heh..I just dont wanna work forever to get him to 50 and sit back and say omg this guy is terrible :) (my first MMORPG btw)

I just dont understand many of the numbers and how they benefit my character. Thanks a lot

Peace
 

Naetha

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 22, 2003
Messages
1,564
For a pally I'd recommend going 42 shield, 48 chants, 39 slash and 17 parry. Remember you get a single line respec at levels 20 and 40 (but they HAVE to be used that level and can't be saved) so if you spent some in two-handed (not really recommended for a pally) go to your trainer and do /respec two-handed at level 40 as you're already level 21.
 

Anniogel

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
May 10, 2004
Messages
4
Here is where I am now with your reccomendations in listed ( )

Level 21 Pally

Slash 16 (39)
Chants 19 (48)
Shield 12 (42)
Parry 8 (17)

So by pure luck it seems I am doing ok, but have to start bumping my shields.
I havnt trained in any tw0-handed so I am ok there.

Also I see I have one realm skill point to spend..any advice as to which skills I should apply my points to? (not even sure how I got the point, unless I got it when I leveled)

again thanks for your help it is appreciated :)

~peace
 

Tuppe

Fledgling Freddie
Joined
Dec 23, 2003
Messages
834
animist etc petspamming class is giving better change to hit etc, not lower af.


one more thing, when posting specs to someone who lower lvl, and you say what spec is ok in 50, its good/wise same time say what lines is priority.
example when i made my zerk, 50 axe/50laxe/28 parry, i keeped my weapons same lvl what i had my char.
lvl 30 -> 30 in axe/laxe, still 0 in parry, and so on.
after 40 when start get minidings (example lvl40.5, lvl41.5, you get half spec points, like 40.5 you get 20 points to spend in lines) these miniding points i used to rise my parry and ended that spec.
 

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